QuoteReplyTopic: So what's the consensus on teaching a newbie- Posted: Apr/19/2011 at 7:54pm

100% put them in a lesson. Most times I think you would just both get angry at each other and it would be a frustrating experience. I did have a friend though, we went out to WISP and he was a beginner skier... switched skis for my board for a morning and literally taught himself to link 2-3 carve turns in a row after 3 hours of riding and minimal shouted instructions! Some people are naturals, but I wouldn't take the chance.. get a lesson

agreed on the lesson part. let someone who is qualified to teach, teach them how to snowboard. I was with a big group of friends who had all boarded a few times before and had a couple of lessons and by the third day i was keeping up with them all without any troubles.

definitely try to minimise their chances of getting frustrated too that will definitely turn them away and stop them from coming back again.

I tend to be the teacher within my group since I guess I progressed the fastest (as a result of going much more often than the rest). If it's their first day, I would teach them "breaking" first. Go down the slope a few times purely using the heel edge and keeping it perpendicular to the slope. On a bunny slope this can be very slow but you do the same thing toe side afterward. I always emphasize bending knees more because every noob's tendency is to lean forward with straight legs (heel or toe side).

Afterward, I would promote a bit of leafing on both sides as well. You're right, I find it does hinder the progression to carving a bit but I find it's a necessary skill to have in case of "emergency" and they can't make that turn. After they start leafing, I take 'em off the bunny hill and bring them to a green, something with more incline.

And yeah, you basically said the rest, turns end up being skidded plows at first but you get them to overcome the fear of linking heel to toe edges. After that, you just gotta make them get used to picking up speed. You can't really carve properly without speed anyway.

The above is very similar to how I learned. But what was most important in my progression was "balls" (guts) and frequent practice. Spreading out each beginner session will only slow one's learning curve. You gotta go lots and go often until you get it.

many shy away from the lessons at first because they think it is a waste of money. however, i always explain that it would be a bigger waste to spend the entire day on your back in the snow wondering "what happened?"

i understand their pain after spending all the gas money to get to the resort, then rentals, lift tickets, maybe food... it can get expensive and people like to cut corners but a formal lesson would not only quicken development and make for a faster learning experience but it would make things more enjoyable.

unless your friend has the knowledge and patience to teach newbies i would recommend a lesson. i learned from someone who only had a little more experience than i did and had no answers to my questions. it was the blind leading the blind and i feel like i threw all my money away that day because i didnt learn anything and didnt really progress.

When I started out I took lessons from 2 different instructors, one taught the J-method and the other taught the leafing first, followed by the J. Glad I learned both because sometimes I have used that leafing to get out of terrain where I wasnt comfortable. You can use it to get down any hill if you get into trouble.

a lot of resorts here in tahoe have a deal for beginners with rental and lesson and limited lift ticket. if you're already a decent rider, it's typically better to have your newbie friend go with a lesson. you can meet up with them after the lesson if you feel guilty.

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I haven't read all the above but I'll post my teaching method. I'm also at work right now so I'm just going to type this fast and not review what I've written.

First I run through everything I will be teaching the person verbally in the time prior to the trip. I let them know they will fall ALOT. I try to convey to them the general idea of how the body-feel of turning and stuff will be, this helps some people a lot. I tell them all the bad habits they will have at first and tell them they'll probably fall a lot trying to break those bad habits.

I do teach falling leaf but I warn them that they better not get too dependant on one side or the other edge will suffer at first. I let them know in advance that turning is actually a little more stable with some speed and slope on the hill.
I teach them how to fall properly.

Note: When I learned me and my friend learned from scratch with little to no direction.

I learned(basics) last seasons so I feel like its fresh. I had no lesson or real help from friends besides how to brake and a few pointers and shifting my weight. I feel just by hearing about falling leaf that it is bad to teach someone.

I know i got very comfortable with heel side to the point that I could tear down the mountain into a hard left turn (im regular footed) and carve hard heel side. Toe side def not the same so I became more dependent on my heel just pretty much going down that way then falling on my toe side.

It wasn't until I was on a very narrow trail that I really began to learn toeside. A lesson would be a good way to go if the person had to be talked into snowboarding (my gf) if they really want to really bad then you could prob just let them fall their way into learning.

It's worth it to pay for a lesson, at least for me. If I had to teach someone, I'd probably be frustrated the whole time thinking of the fun I'm missing out on while teaching basics. I'm also not very patient.

"My best friend took me up to the top of a black diamond and said, "see ya at the bottom."made it down... didn't pizza once. french fry'd my way down!"

You know you too could own a piece of the high life, that's right- time share I skiied for 15 years and had never heard pizza/french fry until south park. The last time my mom skiied was years and years ago, she french fried the whole way down until she ran into someone and took them (and her) into the safety fence at the bottom. She's never set foot (boot) on a hill since. Sucks because she's the missing link in my family getting together for a family day on the hill.

My buddies taught me to ride and honestly wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Don't know if it'd be the same going with some stranger. Of course I was 18 when I learned might be different if I had been a kid.

Also as far as learning on a powder day, it's true for learning tricks(though you can still definitely get hurt), but first time out you dont want to be a deep powder day. Getting up is hard enough for first timers without deep powder.

Kind of an old thread, but if you think you'll be trying to teach a bunch of friends over time the best way to do so is go to a (preferably free) instructors training course at your local mountain when they are looking for snowboarding instructors for the season. We all know how to snowboard, but they will show you how to teach snowboarding. It will also make you a better rider because when you do demonstrations for students you have to make it look perfect because a lot of people learn visually. So basic things like your riding stance and carving will improve, which are fundamentals.Some mountains charge just to take the course, which doesn't guarantee you a job and even if it does intro level instructors usually don't get paid well...the only perk is a free pass and doing a job you like doing. But if it's $50-100 I'd say it's worth it if you teach friends often.

I taught my little brother how to snowboard because the instructors didn't teach well. The thing about snowboarding is it requires a lot of practice and falling down in the beginning. So I had to first teach my brother to get used to the board and do heelside or toeside on a gentle hill. Then I started teaching him to do linking turns and with practice, he's pretty good at snowboarding now.

^^ Sometimes it depends on the instructor and the group. I could hardly understand the guy that was teaching me and a couple of my friends. We took the "cruzer" class so that we would learn how to properly link carves and cruise the mountain. It turned out the people that took the lesson with us barely knew the basics. There was a lot of waiting and scream during the lesson (not us) We ditched the lesson 3/4 of the way because we already knew most of the stuff.

I would recommend teaching newbies the extreme basics before taking lessons (even newbie lessons) Stuff like: stopping, leafing, how to fall, and identifying which stance are they comfortable with.

Go get the best ski/snowboard instructor and knowledgeable ski specialists. And maybe you're interested with Ski & Snowboard Vacation Packages in the United States, Canada & South America they have great deals right now,guess it's good to take a practice there. :)

I for one don't mind teaching friends for half a day. I usually log a lot of riding time each year so losing a half day of riding is no big deal. Secondly, I'd say I'm a pretty patient guy so sitting on my but and repeating tips to a friend is no biggie.

She was a fresh boarder with no other experience on any board. After 2 weeks of on-and-off boarding at Big White, here's where we're at...

-Started on falling leaf to develop some edge control.
-Went on to S-Turns, utilising what she learnt from edge control
-Went onto C-Turns, driving home leading with shoulder. Got her popping before a turn yesterday. :3

She's not quite confident at speed yet, so carving turns will wait. But she can head down a blue run without resorting to the leaf. She's good at washing off speed mid skidded-turn for the link if she needs to - storing that movement in the waist for adjustments. Pretty proud after just 2 weeks of weekends and the odd night-board here and there. We're gonna try and get some confidence up so she can move onto carving turns, and picking better lines.

All in all, I don't think it's a terrbily bad thing to teach the leaf. It gets them up and going pretty quickly, preserves those delicate bums for a little longer, and gives that confidence boost from easy progression provided they don't fall into that trap!

I tried teaching my gf yesterday based on a video set I found on youtube. I still couldn't get her to get going. I agree with the lessons, seems to be the best way to go. Lot of frustration on both of our parts and in the end neither of us had that great of a time.

My friend and I taught ourselves how to ride when I first started. We would go down the hill doing 360s. I have no idea how that helped but we figured it out within a day.

I taught my GF later on and she had no experience prior. most of it was just me showing her a turn and having her try until it worked. Then lots of practice.

I've helped a few other friends get started as well. I normally just try and give them a few things to try and let them take it from there. I feel like some people get embarrassed or more frustrated if you hover around them when they are trying to figure it out so I try and let them do their own thing and help if they ask.

I showed my friend how to stop and turn and then I let him be for 2 hours. I wanted him to learn at his own pace. I came back after 2 hours and showed him some more stuff. Its definitely not fun teaching someone to ride...

I have to agree that it's best to let the pros teach them at the beginning. After they got the basics down, then us, the regular folks, can teach them some techniques to help them progress. But they need to learn the fundamentals first, and sometimes, we're not the best people to teach those. My son has had a mix of both professional instructors and me teaching him myself since he was 4. He's now 6 and can finally stop himself from crashing into people and/or things. He started with his board pointing straight down the hill, he can't even do falling leave without falling...here are some videos of him from earlier this week:

I remember when I first started. There were no snowboarding schools and friends who already boarded just said make your way down. I guess since I skateboarded, it gave me a little edge, not much. I was also more comfortable on my tow side rather than on my heel side. By the end of the day, I was able to turn one way, either toe side or heel side but could not make the transition from one to the other. By the second day, I was able to control that a bit better. Now to teaching the leaf, It definitely helps them to come down the mountain but the progression is very slow.

I think the key is to let them know the mechanics and what makes the board turn and balance their bodies. Once they know what make the board move and how to make the board move, they learn a lot quicker.

The general progression I would recommend is:1. Parts of the board, skating, sliding down a small incline (to help with the lift chair)2. Sideslipping, both edges (hold their hand if necessary)3. Falling leaf, both edges (hand-holding should not be necessary at this point)4.
Turns; technique is very important at this stage, provide some
assitance by "dancing" with them to guide them through the turn

You
should be able to find examples of everything I mentioned in the
YouTube channel I linked. Most of the stuff I mentioned above is
skippable,, though it might be helpful to practice if you are having
trouble.

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